Caution's The Key
by Paixe
Summary: 3 years later, and everything has changed. The tale of a girl and her kitten, and of a distressed and depressed Riku suffering Sora's fame. (Chapter 2 added: Description of what exactly happened inside Kingdom Hearts..)
1. Adventure

The twin red suns had risen.  
  
"Laina!" It was not a call of love.  
  
Eyes shot open, and she stretched languidly, mimicked by the kitten beside her, who was already purring and content. The sunlight was the perfect companion to sleep beside..if only just a few minutes more..  
  
"Laina I want you down here NOW."  
  
Grunt. So demanding, why can't she just..a little longer..  
  
"Are you hearing me you tiny creature?!"  
  
"For Heaven's sake." She finally yelled, throwing herself further into her cotton covers. "Don't have a hernia, Jova. I'll be down in a minute."  
  
And so the next several moments, indecipherable from one another, were spent digging around in the faint daybreak that the twin suns produced, searching for clothing and a comb to rake through her temperamental hair. It wasn't too scraggly this morning.  
  
Plucking the kitten from her nest in the bed, she flung herself over the rusty ladder's edge, relying partly on her birth-granted grace, but mostly on luck to ease her down to the floor below. It was a rather unpleasant crash that she got out of relying on anything else than her own caution. This commodity seemed in short supply, really, a statement that Jova would remind his smaller sister (both in years and stature) before he hurried feverishly out the front door and into the bustling workforce of the island. Laina watched, groggy-eyed, as her brother left, and waited not five minutes before she was back in bed, smiling happily, and asleep with the suns.  
  
The purple planet was on the rise, and this is what finally awoke the somnolent Laina for real. Only a few hours had passed between her first awakening and this next one, really, so it wasn't too much of a waste of time. Niici, the kitten, had long earlier found a maixa beetle to play with, and was now delicately lugging the carcass, easily twice as large as the kitten herself, towards her waking mistress.  
  
Laina was obliged to coo at her adorable counterpart as she scooped her up again, flinging the insect body over into a distant corner of her loft bedroom, to habitate with other corpses of its kind.  
  
"We're going on a grand adventure today, Ni." She said directly to the kitten, hopping up from her bed and consulting the contents of her floor for more inspiration. "We'll need..journals and quills, of course, candles, blankets, chew-toys and catnip..those last two are for you, you know..cookies and waterbottles, some cards, a little gum, a comic book or two, and a few extra paper clips. Just in case." All these items she threw haphazardly into a canvas bag, which she then slung over her shoulder. She took a cloth sling-like contraption up from her cluttered desk, put her head through the largest hole, and plopped Niici rather unceremoniously into the larger of two pockets. The kitten yipped rather happily, in the way of the kitten.  
  
Laina made her way to the edge of her loft, remembering caution, and precariously slid down the previously mentioned ladder, coming to a rest safely on the immaculate tile floor of the hut's bottom level. As she made her way to the door, a bright, fresh beam of planetlight illuminated two throwing disks and a dirk, hung as a display on the wall. Laina's eyes narrowed in quickly calculating thought.  
  
"I doubt Jova'd much like it if I took Dega's weapons.." she whispered to Niici, approaching the display deliberately. "But it's not like he's ever used 'em.. Somebody should put the things to use.." And so she grabbed them quickly, sliding the dirk into a loop on her belt, slipping the two disks into their leather sleeves and clipping them onto her belt as well. Without looking back, she stepped out of the house, knowing that if she encountered Jova without a real excuse, he would have her head. It was a rather good incentive to keep going.  
  
The twin suns were beginning to sink, and the purple planet was almost directly overhead, which meant that it was about midday. It also meant that the island's population was almost completely outdoors. Everywhere she tried to walk, she was getting clipped and half-clobbered by all sort of pedestrian, some on bicycles, tricycles, motorcycles and hovercars. She stood rather shaken for a moment, in front of her home, glancing in several directions, before regaining her wits and charging off towards the docks, remembering that she was indeed 17 years of age, and that was plenty old enough to walk down her own street at midday. Especially with her Uncle's hunting weapons.  
  
The docks were slightly less crowded, an atmosphere that Laina greatly appreciated. It was the first time she had breathed all day, it felt, as she caught a strong wind laced with mist and sea salt. Several boats a minute were tying up at the posts, and an equal number were speeding away, embarking on different voyages, loaded with different cargo. Laina headed to the very end of the south dock, weaving through the merchants and entertainment-seekers. Her destination was a small hut with a thatched palm-wood roof, the building surrounded by heaps and heaps of tiny two- passenger row-boats. She stepped inside, a determined crease forming above her brow.  
  
"Can I help ye, little creature?" a largely-overweight attendant of the small rental shop called to her as she approached the rough wooden counter.  
  
"I want a boat." She stated clearly, not avoiding the stranger's eyes.  
  
"These here are rowboats, lass. Nye motor contraptions on these. How d'ye expect to get it to go anywhere all by yer onsies? Not by will o' the winds, I hope."  
  
"Just get me one set up, will you? I've got your cash.." And here she emptied the contents of her tattered billfold onto the counter. The man stared at the coins.  
  
"A'right fine I'll set ye up a boat." He said finally, scooping the coins into a large bucket and placing it back under the counter, under which it had come from. "Got a color choice on a sail, lass, or are you preferrin' to go without one?"  
  
"Without a sail, are you mad? Get me a purple one. And set it up right or I'll take back all my gold."  
  
"Aye, yes lassie, wouldn't want you to be unhappy with ol' Jay here. Wouldn't want it at all.." He wandered out a back door, muttering incoherently, and Laina was very quick to follow. She saw the man, this Jay, select a faded purple canvas sail from a shelf, and lug it out to the very farthest end of the dock. He hauled a boat off of a stack of them and got to work rigging it for the water. Laina plopped down on an upturned bucket, watching the man with a keen eye. Niici let out a puzzled little squeak, and Laina set to scratching the kitten's ears.  
  
"An adventure, Ni." She stated quietly with not-unnoticeable traces of excitement. "Adventure." 


	2. A Peak into the Dastardly Deeds of Kingd...

"Stupid Ansem." Riku mused, distressed and depressed at the same time. He could get rather childish during times like these. "Stupid Sora. Stupid Donald and Goofy. And that stupid yellow dog.." Things hadn't gone so well in the past 3 years, as it was obvious to infer from his ranting and raving. Such tendencies had become second nature to the Silver-Haired ex- slave-of-evil. He walked the beach alone, barefoot, the surf washing playfully at his miserable toes. He didn't notice their joviality.  
  
"This place is better than that stupid island anyway." He continued, staring about his new place with grim satisfaction. "Nice and empty. The way I like it." And nobody to stare at me when I talk to myself either. he thought, also with the same sense of satisfaction.  
  
"Princesses of heart." He went right on with a very high-frequency tinge of disdain. "What about the Riku of Heart, huh? Who needs those -girls- when they've got Riku! Riku's the best! He's the purest of -all- hearts! And I proved that, didn't I, Sora?" He imagined his old friend the way he often imagined him now, flat on the ground and slobbering in sorrow. Riku wielded his own wingblade high over his head as if to strike. "Who's the one that resisted the darkness the most! You're nothing without that stupid key!"  
  
But Sora's words flew through his mind's ear for the five-thousandth time. Those words he'd said at Malificent's place three years ago. He didn't remember them exactly. He didn't have to. Something about how his heart was stronger than the keyblade. And maybe the hunk of metal was weaker than Sora's heart. But his, Riku's, own heart was even stronger than that! What did the kid know? He was only 14 when he said them. Lousy fourteen. Now he was 17. Still got caught up in his own poetical thoughts on a regular basis. Only now it was all pretty thoughts about roses and purple- spotted-blue jays. And Kairi. The girl didn't know what he'd done for her. Rescued her from the black muck that swallowed Sora up and flung him away. Riku had caught her and everything! That was worth something..  
  
And -who- had braved all Hell in Kingdom Hearts for her? Not Sora! He hadn't even been -in- Kingdom Hearts, let alone fight in it. He, Riku, and the amicable King Mickey of the Disney Kingdom world, whatever a Disney was, had cleared the place out and secured it completely. They could have been lost in there forever, but they weren't! Riku had even gotten the King back to his Disney throne! ..Maybe that was what a Disney was.. It did look like a remarkable throne. Disney..equals..remarkable, and then throne equals, well, throne. So Disney throne..  
  
Anyway. Where was he. Ah yes, about securing Kingdom Hearts.  
  
He'd finally found the lab where all the hearts are made. Big white place with lots of antiseptic and clear glass jars with copper tops. And he marched right up there where all the lab slaves sat toiling, and asked them what they were doing. Didn't get an answer, but that's alright, he didn't mind. It was just to exercise his ego anyway. Instead, he whipped his keyblade, which, by the way, he renamed to the more suitably descriptive wingblade. Still sliced through anything, still unlocks all sorts of doors (Some of which are better left unlocked, he'd tell you with a wise twinkle.) just better explains the funky webbing and ribbing along the edge. Sometimes he had to pretend he liked the black and red vamp-ish thing. Anyway. He got to whip around the wingblade some and watch with a manlike giggle as the beating specimen in the jars in front of him wiggled with apprehension.  
  
"Say Mickey, whaddaya think'd happen if I tested something on these.."  
he had began.  
"No testing on -anything- around here!" the king had commanded in his  
high-pitched and nasaly royal voice.  
"Aw c'mon, spoilsport!" But he had known, even at age 16, not to mess  
with a king in a live/die situation.  
  
And so they had continued through the immaculate white hallways, glancing out the industrial-style windows with apprehension and confusion at the juxtaposition of all the black swirliness out there and all the white sparkly-cleanness inside.  
  
At the end of the longest hallway Riku had ever trekked down, he came upon a simple box, approximately the length of his index finger and the height of his pinkie. But don't be misled, his pinkie was rather large. And nobody knew if it was really pink at all, since he'd been wearing those odd handless gloves since before anyone could remember. I mean, most people are familiar with fingerless gloves.. But handless gloves..? Anyway. This box.  
  
It was a very ordinary box, made of some type of industrial-strength metal, and it only stood out to Riku because it was a shade of cream, whereas the walls, all of them he had seen in this Kingdom Hearts place, were crisp and almost glowing white. That, and there was a large, foreboding sign overhead that said something like, "Never -ever- play with this toy!"  
  
Seemed like somebody hadn't respected their mommy's words very much, because the box had been played with before. There was sticky-tack and hot glue squirting out from around the sides, in hopes of securing it to the wall.  
  
Riku didn't much respect the mommy's words either, as he was inclined to playing with toys. He was also very much bored with all this non-adventure anyway. Kingdom Hearts was just a lot of the same old bashing, and they all came back anyway. So he spent some time picking at the dried hot glue while King Mickey went off to explore some other glisteningly white and ultimately empty hallways.  
  
The glue came off rather easily, and the sticky-tack was fun to play with for a time, but then he got bored and stuck it to his wingblade for later, because the metal box was still on his mind. What kind of toy..shouldn't you play with..? And so he focused on the box again, picking at an unruly strand of glue, before he just lost his short-fused temper and whacked at it solidly with the blunt of his wingblade. The thing unceremoniously clanged to the ground.  
"Excellent!" he had hollered, and his call had echoed through the  
vacant hallways. The King, bored to tears (which is sad for such a  
happy character) with tracing the grooves in the tiles of a hallway  
several measures from the metal box, appeared shortly thereafter.  
"What have you found, Sir Riku?" (He had knighted him a few days ago  
after a valiant slaying of a rather large behemoth. The thing had had  
10 HP bars!)  
"It's a button!" the elated Riku had called.  
"A button?" the King implored, reading the sign above said button with  
mounting apprehension. "We better leave it alone.."  
"Oh simpleton, it's just a button! It looks fun. Wanna push it?"  
"No!"  
"Then I will." He poised for button pushing and extended his index  
finger. "Ready?"  
"No!" the King readily whacked the poor Riku in the bum with his  
miniature keyblade.  
"Aw, c'mon, Kingy, just once.."  
But the monarch refused. Something about caution and not jumping the  
gun.  
"Well I'll push it anyway. You can't stop me."  
"But I'm the king!"  
"Not my king." And thus, he pushed the minute, square-ish purple  
button.  
  
Nothing happened for a fraction of a second. In this short amount of time, Riku managed to stare at the king for a bit in confusion. And then a lot happened.  
  
Just as night turns to day, dark and swirly turned to light and pretty. A deafening boom shook everything inside Kingdom Hearts, and Riku and the King were knocked off their over-large feet and heaved into the wall. A great gust of rose-smelling wind gushed through the hallways and shattered every one of the countless windows. It procured a lovely tinkling sound, and the silver, glittering shards filled the air with white glitter.  
  
"Riku!" the King gasped in an awed voice, staring very distinctly at the purple button. The thing had changed, morphing from a sickly purple to a radiating hot pink. And in the center was a very minute, though well defined keyhole.  
  
"The keyhole!" Riku shouted, elated with his find. He presently resorted to skipping gleefully about the King. Very un-Riku-like, though alltogether rather acceptable.  
  
"It makes perfect sense!" the King continued. "One keyhole to rule them all!" And the two stared, enchanted, for some time.  
  
"So do we lock it?" Riku finally implored. The King, shaken from his deep staring, nodded solemnly.  
  
The task was simple. They very slowly raised their key weapons and turned to face the hot pink button. A very small beam of bright blue light erupted from each of the blades, twining around eachother and shooting towards the keyhole with growing force and speed. They hit the wall and passed through the hole in unison, shaking the whole place for the second time, launching the two blade bearers against the same trembling wall. Very quickly, darkness overtook them. The generic sound of a bolt sliding into its chamber rattled in their minds, and then all was silent. 


End file.
